the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was always accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest Mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's Protection that turneth the hearts of his People as pleaseth him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without his Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox populi est vox Dei The present restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-setled the former Oppressions will be put on with greater vigour but we hope in vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds For first The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And secondly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk Men that help'd her to her Throne And above all thirdly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock-shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we refer our Cause 3. The King having marched his Army as far as Salisbury to meet the Prince published a Proclamation of Pardon to all such of his Subjects as had taken up Arms and sided with the Prince provided they deserted the Enemy within 20 days and promising Pardon and protection to such Foreigners as would come into his Service and freedom of passage to others to return into their respective Countries But this Proclamation was not at all regarded 4. When the King was at Salisbury the Popish Party seeing their Affairs grow every day more desperate began to employ all their Politicks to invent some Remedy for them and then first formed the Design of the King's with-drawing which they grounded upon this Supposition and Expectation That within two years or less the Nation would be in such Confusion that he might return and have his Ends of it 5. In the mean time the King being unmoveably fixed in a Resolution not to call a Parliament part of the Army revolted and went over to the Prince and the rest either discouraged by the desertion of them that went or by the averseness they found in the body of the People from making any opposition to the Prince's Arms or out of a sense that in fighting against him they should fight against their own Religion and native Country appeared so lukewarm in the Cause that the King did not think fit to hazard a Battel 6. Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others of the Protestant Nobility left the King and went over to the Prince of Orange then at Sherborne and on the 25th of November in the night Princess Ann the King 's Second Daughter withdrew privately from White-hall with the Lady Churchill 7. The going off of these Great Men struck the King with terror and the Army being before much in disorder became thereby so full of fear and suspicion that a false Alarm being made whether by design or accident the King and the whole Army left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on Monday the 26th of November he returned in the Evening to London 8. The first thing the King did being at London was to remove Sir Edward Hales from being Lieutenant of the Tower and to put Sir Bevill Skelton a Protestant in his room Sir Edward had displeased the whole City to the utmost by planting several Mortar-pieces on the Walls towards the City which tho designed only to awe it had more enraged than afrighted them So that his Majesty thought he was not safe at White-hall so long as Sir Edward was Master of the Tower 9. On the 28th His Majesty ordered in Privy Council the Lord Chancellor to issue Writs for the sitting of a Parliament at VVestminster the 15th of January following But it was now too late and the Nation in such a ferment that it was not regarded what the Court said or did 10. Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a Condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament The Popish Chappels at Bristol York Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Wolverhampton Bromingham Cambridge and St. Edmundsbury were about this time demolished and where-ever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This Meeting was at Norwich the first of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and Lyn and the Suffolk-Men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety 11. Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace who had been seized as he was going to join the Prince was by the Gentry of Glocester-shire delivered out of the Castle of Glocester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Ashton in the mean time seized Chester for the King being Roman Catholicks and Berwick stood firm to him but Newcastle received the Lord Lumly and declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the Associated Lords and the Garison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Mountgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange 12. The Popish Party was grown so contemptible that on Thursday the 6th of December there was a Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London And about the same time came out a Third Declaration in the Prince's name but not emitted by him which very much alarm'd the Popish Party and as it is thought contributed very much to the fixing and hastning the King's Resolution of leaving the Nation It was read in many Towns throughout England at the Market-cross the People universally believing till some time after
soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace though it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Order This being the security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates That they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employment Civil or Military 17. Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signify in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's De\sires signified to us We declared both by Word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom 18. The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors But this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a Lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subject they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are ail equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarrellings that so by these some Advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked Ends. They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Employment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before-hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all Employments And others who entred into those Engagements were put into their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Privileges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the electors to chuse such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England cannot expect a Remedy from a Free Parliament legally called and chosen But they may perhaps see one called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Counsellors hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness of the Nation which may appear evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to comply with their wicked Designs 19. But to Crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published That the Queen hath brought forth a Son though there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible grounds of Suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and of the birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts 20. And since our Dearest and most Entirely beloved Consort the Princess and likewise We Our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the Year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust War use their utmost endeavours to put an end to that War and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they ran
the hazard of losing both the Favour of the Court and their employments and since the English Nation has ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to Our selves We cannot excuse our selves from Espousing their Interests in a Matter of such high Consequence and from contributing all that lies in us for the maintaining both of the protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the Securing to them the continual enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which We are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks 21. Therefore it is that We have thought fit to go over to England and to carry over with us a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evil Counsellors And We being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as we have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons inducing us to it so we now think fit to declare That this our Expedition is intended for no other design but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled as soon as is possible And that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited contrary to the Ancient Custom shall be considered as null and of no force And likewise all Magistrates who have been unjustly turned out shall forthwith resurne their former employments as well as all the Burroughs of England shall return again to their Ancient prescriptions and Charters and more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in force And that the Writs for the Members of parliament shall be addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custome That also none be suffered to chuse or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully Chosen they shall meet and sit in full Freedom that so the two Houses may concur in the preparing of such Laws as they upon full and free Debate shall judge necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Laws as are necessary for the security and maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Laws as may establish a good agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subject from all persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession 22. And We for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shall determine since we have nothing before our Eyes in this our undertaking but the preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all men from persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legal Government 23. This is the Design that we have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Arms In the Conduct of which We will keep the Forces under our Command under all the strictness of Martial Discipline and take a special care that the people of the Countries through which we must March shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the state of the Nation will admit of it We promise that we will send back all those Foreign Forces that We have brought along with us 24. We do therefore hope that all people will judge rightly of us and approve of these our proceedings But We chiefly rely on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which We place our whole and only Confidence 25. We do in the last place invite and require all persons whatsoever all the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament 26. And we do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet We will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the people may live easie and happy and for putting an end to all the unjust Violences that have been in a course of so many years committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a state that the Settlement there may be religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an Establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. William Henry Prince of Orange By his Highness special Command C. Huygens The King having received advice that the preparations in Holland were designed for England cast about how to prevent the Peoples running to joyn with the Prince In order to which he was advised to appease them by seeming to step backward and undo some things that he knew had given a general distaste against his Government Hereupon the Ecclesiastical Commission was taken away the Bishop of London and the Master and Fellows of Magdalen-College restored as likewise the Ancient Charters of Cities and Boroughs and a Free Parliament promised to be called when the Kingdom should be freed from a Foreign Force This occasioned the Prince to publish his Additional Declaration His Highness's additional Declaration c. AFter we had Prepared and Printed this our Declartion